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Randall Delgado Sharp, Atlanta Braves Even Series with Chicago Cubs

Delgado went 5 2/3 innings, having mostly smooth sailing until the sixth inning when an Alfonso Soriano RBI-double chased him from the game. Soriano's double drove in the only run Delgado allowed and was just the third hit, with the second being Tony Campana's single to start the inning.

The outing was Delgado's second consecutive strong outing. He only gave up two runs over eight innings in his last start against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Braves also frustrated the solid outing by Ryan Dempster, who has still not won since last August. He struck out seven and held the Braves to a sacrifice fly by Tyler Pastornicky in the sixth to drive home Jason Heyward, who tripled to lead off the frame.

Dempster's ERA inflated to a whopping 1.02 before he turned over the game to Kerry Wood, who provided the Braves with hit-able pitches and pitched just erratically enough to allow the Braves to take the lead in the eighth.

Wood started by allowing Michael Bourn to single and walking Martin Prado. Freddie Freeman then nearly hit into a 4-6-3 double play, but he beat the turn from Starlin Castro to put runners at the corners with one out. Wood proceeded to walk McCann on four pitches before Dan Uggla singled through the hole to left to drive in two.

Uggla turned around and bailed out Jonny Venters in the bottom of the eighth when he started an aggressive double play with two on and one out. Having to range to his left, Uggla decided to gun the ball to Jack Wilson to get the speedy Castro before Wilson threw out Bryan LaHair.

Not to be lost is that Kris Medlen picked up his first win since returning from his 2010 Tommy John surgery. He worked a perfect seventh to earn the W.

Atlanta, now tied with the Washington Nationals for the NL East lead, will look to Tim Hudson to win the rubber game against Paul Maholm at 2:20 Wednesday.